It’s been a long time coming, but today Mozilla finally announced plans to stop producing and supporting Firefox OS and devices that take advantage of the operating system.
The company says it will continue to experiment with other connected devices related to the “internet of things,” but hasn’t publicized specific products or plans yet. Mozilla revealed the news during its annual “Mozlando” developer event in Orlando, Florida.
The company sent the following regarding the future of its Firefox OS to TechCrunch:
“We are proud of the benefits Firefox OS added to the Web platform and will continue to experiment with the user experience across connected devices. We will build everything we do as a genuine open source project, focused on user experience first and build tools to enable the ecosystem to grow.
Firefox OS proved the flexibility of the Web, scaling from low-end smartphones all the way up to HD TVs. However, we weren’t able to offer the best user experience possible and so we will stop offering Firefox OS smartphones through carrier channels.
We’ll share more on our work and new experiments across connected devices soon.”
Firefox OS first launched in 2013 and was designed with low-cost smartphones and late adopters to the world of mobile in mind. However, the platform was held back by a lack of native applications. All Firefox OS apps were web-based and require an internet connection to work. Reports surfaced at one point that the operating system would eventually run native Android applications but that ambition never game to fruition for Mozilla.
Sales of devices supporting FirefoxOS have always been less than stellar and consumer interest in the product has dwindled over the last few year.
In other Mozilla related news, the company released an ad blocker called Focus today.
[source]TechCrunch[/source]
